Consumers are continually expressing the desire to have soft and fresh smelling clothing that is free of static cling. To obtain such benefits, in laundering it is common for consumers to place dryer sheets along with their clothing in their automatic laundry drying machines. Dryer sheets typically reach most pieces of fabric in the load as they tumble along with the clothing as the automatic laundry drying machine drum rotates. Generally, conventional dryer sheets are made up of non-woven fibrous substrates which are impregnated or coated with fabric enhancers such as a fabric conditioning active composition, cationic softening agents, antistatic agents, dispersing agents and perfumes. The fabric enhancers are applied to the non-woven fibrous substrate and then dried in an oven or run over chilled rollers so that the dryer sheet is “dry” when ready for use. These dryer sheets may be readily placed in the automatic laundry drying machine with the consumer's clothing. During the drying process, the fabric enhancers impregnated or coated on the dryer sheet are released and transferred from the dryer sheet to the clothing, either directly from the dryer sheet to the clothing or indirectly by first transferring from the dryer sheet onto to the drum and then from the drum onto the clothing. Examples of dryer sheets may include but are not limited to dryer sheets such as those sold under the tradename BOUNCE DRYER SHEETS manufactured and sold by The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA and SNUGGLE DRYER SHEETS manufactured and sold by The Sun Products Corporation, Wilton, Conn., USA. Dryer sheets have generally been provided to consumers as individual folded sheets stored in recloseable cartons.
To decrease the time consumers spend laundering their clothing, through the years manufacturers have steadily increased the size of the drum in automatic laundry drying machines to hold a greater capacity of clothing. These larger sized drums reduce the number of loads of laundry a consumer has to wash and dry. A problem arises when consumers visually perceive the quantity of clothing placed in the smaller sized drums as the same size load as the quantity of clothing placed in these new larger sized drums. This inaccurate visual perception can lead consumers to continue the habit of placing only one dryer sheet in the automatic laundry drying machine with the clothing. In doing so, each of the individual pieces of clothing in these larger sized loads has less fabric enhancer being transferred to its fabric because there is more clothing but still the same amount of fabric enhancers.
To attempt to solve this problem of underdosage of fabric enhancers, a wax bar can be glued to the automatic laundry drying machine drum to release fabric enhancers with the heat of the drying cycle. However, these wax bars could lead to pieces of wax broken off during the drying cycle being found amongst the clothing and since the bar is affixed to one point of the drum, the bar might not touch every piece of clothing. Manufacturers have further tried to resolve the problem of underdosage by creating small balls that are placed with the clothing and move around as the drum rotates. However, these dryer balls typically do not contain fabric enhancers but are more so used to reduce static cling. Alternatively, manufacturers have created liquid fabric conditioning sprays that consumers can spray onto their wet clothing before beginning the drying cycle. When using the spray, consumers may not easily judge whether they are underdosing. The composition might also only affix to one portion of the clothing and not transfer to the remainder of the clothing during the drying cycle. As another option, manufacturers have included on their dryer sheet carton instructions to use more than one sheet for better results. However, consumers may not always notice this instruction and might continue to only use one sheet even while drying a large sized load.
In view of the above, there is a continuing unaddressed need for a product and method of using such product to deliver an effective amount of fabric conditioning active composition to the clothing fabrics in a load of laundry in an automatic laundry drying machine with minimal change in consumer habits.